Sunrise Montemare Resort Grand Select

Beautiful beach and snorkelling. Nice looking resort.

Some kindly staff, waiters and cleaners.

Overall a disappointment. We got extremely sick during our time with bacterial gastroenteritis as diagnosed by hotel Dr. We found avoiding the ice in drinks and anything uncooked prevented repeat infection and noticed if we tried to take ice again, we became unwell. While we know to be careful in Egypt, we expected more from a 5* hotel. It was clear there was an issue in the hotel as we saw / heard people vomiting in public areas on several occasions/saw sick on the steps leading to communal areas and smelt sick around the beach bar. Everyone we spoke to had experienced diarrhoea/vomiting and had resorted to the pharmacy for low grade antibiotics (Antinal) and also reported becoming unwell repeatedly.

We found lack of cool areas to relax in evening challenging on very hot days. There was only the hotel lobby, which was very busy and not very relaxing or a small sports bar (nice and served nice cocktails but limited space). More indoor areas to relax on very hot evenings would be beneficial when evening air does not cool below 37 degrees!

Due to hot weather some of pools were too warm to swim in, especially one near beach, after a few minutes it was like being in a bubble bath. Pool by reception was a little cooler and provided some relief. We experienced 44 degrees some days and found nowhere to cool down, we expected at least pools to be cool enough to provide some comfort.

Tui advertised 24 hr Ala Carte restaurant in hotel. We arrived late at night and were told there was no restaurant open but that we could order room service. Once in room, we were tired and found no in room menu, so by 1 am we were asleep (having made the most of some welcome leftover M&S food from the airport!), only to be woken after 2 am by a waiter with ham and cheese and bread rolls! We would have appreciated this at about midnight but not at 2 am!

The restaurant experience was chaotic, a bit like feeding time at the zoo. The restaurant is far too small for the size of the hotel. Overall a hot and unpleasant experience, especially at breakfast. A lack of air con in restaurant made it very warm. Waiters did their best to clear tables but you could see they were struggling with volume of guests and dirty tables. No sanitiser on tables, which given self service nature of restaurant and level of infection we observed around the hotel, would have been beneficial. Lack of waiter service for juice / proper tea/coffee, especially at breakfast. All 5* hotels we have visited previously have had a barista in the restaurant and proper coffee, not a queue for push button coffee! Food overall was ok but overall dining experience was not very enjoyable.

As a family of five we were not happy to be in separate blocks and had to wait until the next day to move rooms and be in rooms next to each other. This delayed the start of our holiday and meant we could not relax when we arrived.

We paid a high price for this hotel, it was advertised as 5*, overall based on illness experienced, lack of sanitiser in canteen and poor hygiene associated self service nature of food, lack of cool pools/cool areas at night to relax and arrival experience with rooms and no food, we would not rate this a 5* but more what you would expect from a 3* hotel. We would not return and were overall disappointed.

This is a very good hotel for the money. There’s several staff members who would be at home at any hotel in terms of their level of service & friendliness. These people can really make a difference to a holiday. There’s two guys called Mohammed at the Island bar who make you feel like royalty when you approach. Sensational attitude & work ethic.

We would highly recommend getting a swim up room as they’re very well located to the beach, bars & restaurant, with convenient access to laze away if you felt the urge. Room was ok in terms of size, cleaner (Ahmed) was fantastic & the air con was great & I really miss that shower. No complaints from me.

The entertainment team are always up to something & I appreciated that they’d respect our choices to be involved or not. They obviously work extremely hard to maintain an atmosphere throughout the day & in to the evening.

Try to book the Al a cartes where possible. The buffet was too busy at certain points & sometimes distracted from the food which was, on the whole, good. The seafood restaurant (which is an extra charge) was worth the money & Ramadan the waiter makes it an experience. You certainly won’t go hungry at this hotel no matter where you decide to eat. We went during UK school holidays, so I have to balance these comments with the inevitable high hotel occupancy. Coffee in the lobby bar is way better than the buffet machines. Sports bar is a great spot for an afternoon beer. Massages in the spa are very good value if you haggle for two or three for the price of one.

You have plenty of everything at this hotel. It was hard to find any negatives & I think the only time I found my frown was at the on-site tuck shop which unapologetically tried to charge me 400EGP (about £5.80) for a Snickers bar. After seeing my obvious disgust, this was quickly halved. The other tiny gripe was that the hotel is on a terraced incline with quite a few steps from the beach to reception (not a problem). A little mini bus does shuttles all the time, but often we found too many people wanting to go at the same time, so the wait could be long & not all nationalities understand the British art of queuing patiently.

Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate in booking this again. If you’re deliberating between a couple of different resorts, I’d say go for this one. Enjoy

Upon arrival first impressions were really good!!..on the next day we went to buy cigarettes from shop within hotel!.the young lad there was vastly over pricing the cigarettes so I said I won’t pay that for them!..he then started pushing me with his hip back into his shop so I pushed him out of the way!.my friend Sian was with me he then grabbed her wrist,trying to pull her back into his shop but we eventually just walked away!.we also found out from another English lady that was staying at the hotel that she tried to buy a packet of chewing gum & he tried to charge £5 for one packet!we went the entertainment one night & my friend Sian said she was going to look at the jewellery shop!..when she came back she told one of the young lads grabbed her hand & said unless you kiss me I won’t let go,she kissed him on the cheek because she was scared!.eventually the young lads pushed her up against the shop window & tried kissing her on the lips,she managed to get away from him!.we reported this to the entertainment manager & he was so good & reported to the management.a few days later we noticed most of the lads that worked in shops where not there anymore & later found out they had been thrown off the site by management!!..the most amazing thing is we did not get an apology off the management & to be honest quite a serious situation plus telling us we where secure as these shop staff where not there anymore!..I will say the staff where amazing but I have my doubts about the management